Day 41: Texas Now Open ‘100 Percent’

Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) bucked against Federal recommendations and lifted the state’s masks and shutdown mandates, he announced today.

"With the medical advancements of vaccines and antibody therapeutic drugs, Texas now has the tools to protect Texans from the virus,” Abbott said via statement. "We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans by opening Texas 100 percent.”

The state suffered unprecedented snow storm damages, leaving thousands still without water some weeks after the deadly disaster.

“Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared,” he continued, “but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.

“Today’s announcement does not abandon safe practices that Texans have mastered over the past year. Instead, it is a reminder that each person has a role to play in their own personal safety and the safety of others. With this executive order, we are ensuring that all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny.”

Mississippi, also cast into ongoing water shortages from the back-to-back storms, has relieved her constituents from mask mandates, too, along with Montana and Iowa.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend, Governor Kristi Lynn Noem (R-SD) boasted to applause that she has not once, during the pandemic, issued a statewide shutdown. The sparsely populated state with nearly half the tourism rate of D.C. has suffered 1,888 Covid-19-related deaths to date.

The District is teetering close at 1,019. Nationwide, the figure has reached 513,122.

“I’ve asked the country to wear masks for my first 100 days in office,” President Biden reminded during an announcement that he’s secured enough vaccines for every U.S. adult to receive their dosage by May. “Now is not the time to let our guard down. People’s lives are at stake.”